


Radioactive

by starlinks



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Lots of Angst, Poor Danny, basically what this fandom excels in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23172238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlinks/pseuds/starlinks
Summary: One-shot. In the end, the ghosts were not the ones that killed Danny.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton, Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton/Sam Manson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 80





	Radioactive

**Radioactive**

* * *

"I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones  
Enough to make my systems blow"

~ _Radioactive_ by Imagine Dragons

* * *

The first things Danny registered when he finally came to his senses were the harsh fluorescent lights overhead, the slow but steady beeps of the heart monitor, and the distinctive smell of disinfectant. The world was rushing back to him as his consciousness slowly pieced itself back together. He felt as if he was trapped under a malleable yet unbreakable plastic wrapper, slowing suffocating him little by little.

He closed his eyes again, unable to keep them open any longer. At least he knew that he could break the barrier that has kept him unconscious for who knows how long. When he first noticed the blackouts, he had insisted to his friends that he was fine. He had always managed to come back to the surface; back to the real world. Danny supposed that this time, though, nothing his friends could do would wake him up, and they had to send him to a hospital. This fact alone terrified him.

Danny felt numb. He could taste vile on his tongue, and the vague sounds not far off was giving him a migraine. Shaking his head a little, he focused on the source of the noise and realized that it was his parents and someone unknown having a conversation.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Fenton. I'm sure you can understand. We wouldn't want to startle–"

"Move away! He is my son. I have a right to see him. Let me in!" Maddie demanded, pushing past the nurse. Jack was much more reluctant, but he followed Maddie in and shot an apologizing look to the exasperated nurse.

Danny mustered up all his strength as he opened his eyes again and tried to focus his vision on his mother. He was largely unsuccessful, but he could recognize the teal on her suit from anywhere. 

Secretly, he was glad that his mother was so worked up. He wondered if his mom would ever notice that something was wrong with him if he weren't admitted to the hospital somehow. Would she be this worried? Or would she have dismissed his situation as mere exhaustion, overlooking it because she only sees what she chooses to see? He wanted to push away the dark thought, but as always, it continued to plague him.

Danny's vision focused a little. Maddie Fenton had gotten thinner; her red hair duller and speckled with more gray than ever. Her worried eyes landed on her baby boy. Cautiously, she walked to him and enveloped him in a hug.

Danny didn't know what it meant that he could notice such physical changes in his mother. Had so much time passed that he could identify how much she had deteriorated since the last time he had seen her? Her hug was full of worry and warmth, but she no longer smelled like chocolate cookies and burnt ectoplasm. Instead she reeked of disinfectant, just like everything else in this hospital.

Just then Tucker and Sam ran in, although Jazz was nowhere to be seen. She was probably busy. Sam held Danny's gaze as she gave him an almost unnoticeable shake of her head. Good. His parents had not discovered his secret yet.

Maybe that means his parents cannot accuse Phantom for anything that was happening to his human body. His main concerned settled, Danny looked over the both of his friends again.

His friends were looking worse for the wear. Sam looked so much plainer. Her make up was done halfheartedly, and her hair looked disheveled. Tucker wasn't on his tablet, and his stubble indicated that he hadn't shaved for a couple of days. They boy was currently fidgeting with his beret, watching uncomfortably as Maddie embraced Danny and planted a kiss on his forehead.

Danny cleared his throat. He accepted the glass of water Jack handed him and the tug on his wrist helped him realized that he was connected to an IV. Something was very, very wrong, but he didn't want to find out the truth. He considered making a joke, but decided that it was not the time.

"Hey everyone. Uh, how long was I out?" he rasped, unsure what to ask about first, still unsettled. He should have been more reactive about everything, but he felt nothing but an overwhelming numbness. The nurses gave him something--morphine, probably.

"Oh, Danny," Maddie muttered as her breath hitched. Jack moved in to embrace her in a hug. "Danny-boy, you've been out for three weeks. We thought…- Well, I'm glad you're awake now."

Three weeks? Danny had trouble comprehending this. How is the town not overrun by ghosts by now?

As if catching onto Danny's confusion, Sam added, "Valerie has been helping with school stuff," emphasizing 'school' to help Danny understand.

"That's good. One less thing to worry about for now."

"Young man, you are definitely not going back to school in the near future."

"Why? I am going to have so much school work to catch up on! Oh man, Lancer is definitely going to kill me now," Danny stated, running a hand through his hair. Of course, school is the least of his worries. Instead, he thought of the ghosts that must have been running around freely and he would have to set up everything and-

He stopped his train of thought when he saw everyone's grave faces. He was going to ask about it, but he noticed the image residing on his bedside. It was the result of a PET scan. Danny Fenton's PET scan, his name scribbled carelessly with a silver sharpie against the black film.

While he was not the best at biology, he understood what it was. Nuclear imaging: a technology that traces the cancerous masses by issuing the patient a small dose of radioactive sugars. It was one of the things that the trio found out about when they were still thinking of a way to test out his powers and new ghostly physique. Well, that explained the funny taste in his mouth, along with just about everything else happening then.

"Mom, I'm fine. I don't-"

By then, Maddie was already broken down to tears. Jack tried to console her, but he resolved to take her out of the room in the end. Danny felt his heart wrench as he gazed at his parents' retreating figures. He thought back to how uncharacteristically quiet his father was; how broken his mother was; how numb he felt from whatever chemicals that were circulating his system--enough to drown his emotions and prevent him from panicking altogether.

"Danny," Tucker said. "I-I'm sorry, man. We should have seen it sooner. We should have gotten you checked up before any of this happened."

Danny shook his head. "It's... It's okay. It's not like we could have done anything about it."

Tucker nodded but shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, look, my mother wants me to be back as soon as possible. I…- She wasn't even going to let me come today, so…," he trailed off weakly.

He couldn't bare to see Danny like that. Danny was suppose to be the strongest person he knew! Instead, Danny had been out of commission. Tucker spent the past three weeks of sitting, waiting, and walking senselessly like a puppet with its strings cut -- he thought that his best friend was never going to wake up again. He sneaked out of his house when he heard that Danny might wake up soon, but his own parents were worried for him and forbid him from being out too long.

"Don't worry about me, Tuck. Don't let Mrs. Foley wait up," Danny said, trying to go for a weak smile. His best friend gave him a quick, "take care," and left. He vowed to be back soon.

"And you, Sam? You should probably go home too. Your parents might be worried."

"They don't care about me. They won't notice anything," Sam assured, her words lacking their usually strong conviction. She was already exhausted. Danny was secretly happy that she stayed. He wanted someone to keep him company. Maybe illness wouldn't be that bad after all; not if it meant having Sam Manson by his side all the time to talk to.

"Well, suit yourself," he said lightly as Sam sat near the foot of his bed.

After a moment of silence, Danny cut in. "So, cancer, huh?" he asked, glancing at the scan. "Did they specify what kind?"

"No. They couldn't even find out where it originated from," Sam muttered, her spirits plummeting. She smoothed out her skirt and the wrinkles on the bed sheet she sat on.

"Well. Any theories?" Danny inquired, knowing that his two best friends must have come up with something. They always did.

"Tucker and I thought it's from your transformations. I mean, it must take some energy to transfer between the forms, right? He said something about electrons and molecules. I don't know. I'm not that interested in science," Sam said, shuddering slightly. She hated to think how this hero business ended this way.

Danny thought over it. Sam wasn't interested in that stuff but he was, and he could see how Tucker came to that conclusion. Radioactivity exists everywhere in the background environment, but his transformations must be on a whole other level of energy transmittance. Everytime he transformed there must have been a chemical change. For him to go through such a through and drastic change on a molecular level, the amount of radioactivity emitted must have been disastrously large. All these radioactive transformations may as well have given him the cancer. He just hoped that that wouldn't also disproportionately affect their friends just because they were around him.

(Deep down, he knew that cancer was always possible. They never fully understood the consequences of his DNA being contaminated in the first place. His accident and its gifted powers were a scientific mystery, and its consequences on his health were always a lingering question in the back of their minds. Especially his -- but he just didn't want to vocalize it.)

There's always a catch to cool hero super powers. Danny just thought that his suffering would be limited in his grades, but of course, that wasn't enough.

"So, I can't go ghost anymore or I'll die? Is that what it is?," he mused, playing it off lightly. He had been the hero of Amity Park for so long, but he supposed he could try and be a human again.

"Going ghost would definitely accelerate your progression," Sam said, biting her lip, "but the malignant cells are spreading. They couldn't do anything about it," she finished bluntly, not finding any reason to cover it up. It pained her seeing Danny like that. She wanted to cry about how life wasn't fair, how Danny would be the last person to deserve this, but she held it in. If Danny's not breaking down, why should she?

"Huh," and that was all Danny said.

Sam could feel herself getting angry. Danny looked like as if he didn't care. How could he not? There are so many people who loved him and cared about him; his ambivalence was seriously upsetting her. Shouldn't he at least want to get better? Shouldn't he at least care?

"'Huh'? Is that all? Damnit, Danny, your family and Tucker and I have tried everything in the past three weeks to get you to wake up and get better or something, and all you say is 'huh'? Do you know how hurt I would be--how hurt everyone would be--if we lost you? Do you even care?," she shouted, standing up. Her anger was aimed partly at Danny and partly at the world. Why were the fates so cruel? No one deserved this, but out of all people, why Danny?

That got Danny. He didn't want Sam here to be angry at him. Perhaps it was because the chemicals were wearing off slowly---his emotions came in waves and rolls. He was aggravated by Sam's little rant.

"What do you want me to say? What do you want me to talk about when I'm lit up with the neon greens and reds from that stupid PET Scan like a freaking Christmas tree? Do you want me to reassure you that I will be 'okay'? That I will walk out of this fine like I did from every other ghost fight?," he snapped back harshly, trying to control his rapid breathing.

No matter how confident he is usually, Danny had no control in this situation. According to the scan, he was made of cancer. He was cancer. There was nothing else to do but await Death. And he knew it. Denial may come later, but he knew it, and he knew that his family and friends knew it, too. He's not Deadpool, and this was it. If he go ghost, he'd risk being a permanent one. And he knew that was the last thing he wanted to be. He has no choice in this matter but to watch everything slipping away.

Surprised by Danny's outburst, Sam stared at him wide-eyed, her lip trembling. Everything was too confusing. Here she was, talking with Danny for the first time in three weeks, and they couldn't even manage it. She wanted to scream at the world, but that wouldn't help Danny. Nothing could help him anymore.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, sitting down again. She was not sure what she was apologizing for, exactly. The fact that she got irritated at her best friend? The fact that Danny had cancer and how the world was just never in favor of the brave? The fact that she could not do anything to reverse the situation?

Even though Sam prides herself to be a headstrong girl, tears still managed to find their ways down her cheek. Leaning close to Danny's ears, Sam embraced him much like Maddie did earlier, and whispered, "It's just too much. I don't want to lose you. I'm sorry."

The anger bled out and sadness washed in like waves. He felt numb again, and heaviness suddenly took him and forced his eyes to close. "I know, Sam, I know…," he said lightly. He knew that she was the last to blame. It was him, in the end, who chose to step in that gods damned portal. And to be honest, he wasn't sure if he really regretted it.

Sleep sounded pleasant and was calling him, caressing him. Maybe this is something that Danny could deal with later. Hardly anything seemed like it was worth the trouble at the moment, after all. Things can wait. Unconsciousness rolled over Danny like a thick blanket, and the last thing he registered was Sam's sudden shouting, the noises from the doors, and the calling of the darkness.

Then, nothing else matters anymore.

**A/N: I hope that you all liked the one-shot! I will not disclose what exactly happens to Danny in the end-it is up to you readers to decide. Special thanks to notdannyphantom and chloe-angel on tumblr for proofreading this for me 5 years ago. I've missed so many people in the phandom -- so many had left since I joined a decade ago.**


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